Imported .pdfs, change the color of the lines?

[rsloyer]

I have the plumbing and underground structural plans imported together and want to make it more clear which is which. Is there a way to change the color of the lines in each?

[BlackBox]

Try printing the PDF's to .TIFF, then insert the image into the drawing.

This process only makes the line work visible, so you can easily overlay the image in your drawing, change the color, etc.

Hope this helps!

[rsloyer]

One would export to tiff, and one wouldn't (Adobe said it was too wide?). Trying to get my doc manager to convert them for me.

FWIW when I dragged the pdfs into AutoCAD 2011 only the line work shows up now and the backgrounds are transparent.

[BlackBox]

Not so fast, here are some minor corrections....

One would PRINT to tiff (Like I said earlier), and one WOULD successfully create a transparent .TIFF that can be modified like any other AutoCAD object.
....

Give it a try, would you...

Open the PDF you want (Adobe Reader will work)
Open the print window
Select "Microsoft Office Document Image Viewer" for the Printer Name
Click the PROPERTIES Button
Select the "Page" Tab
Select your Page Size
Select "Advanced" Tab
Select "TIFF - Monochrome Fax" for the Output Format
Select "Super Fine (300 DPI)" for the reolution
Hit the OK button to close the properties window
Hit the OK button to printSave the file to your desired location, then drag into AutoCAD... wallah' Transparent background, nothing but line work, and as requested, you can change the color for each .TIFF independently. ;)

[rsloyer]

I don't have "Microsoft Office Document Image Viewer" but do have "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" and it does not have page size options.

The reason I said "export" before is that in Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended I click
File->Export->Image->Tiff

One of the two files works, the other says:
"Acrobat could not save a page in this document because of the following error:

The image is too wide to output. Please crop it or reduce resolution and try again. (Page 1)"

Tried cropping it as much as I could but no go. Interestingly the file that DID export is 1,340 KB while the one that won't is only 426 KB (430 after crop).



I take it that even though the pdfs themselves imported with transparent backgrounds there is still no way to alter the color of them?

[BlackBox]

I don't have "Microsoft Office Document Image Viewer" but do have "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" and it does not have page size options.

Forgive my earlier assumption, as most companies use Microsoft Office, the MDI Viewer is included with Office (hence the name)... If you do in fact use Office, then this may be a simple issue of your IT Department making the print driver available to the CAD users.

The page size is not critical, but I tried be as inclusive of the steps as possible. Even without specifying a page size the process worked (for me).

I attempted the XPS Document Writer without success.


The reason I said "export" before is that in Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended I click
File->Export->Image->Tiff

One of the two files works, the other says:
"Acrobat could not save a page in this document because of the following error:

The image is too wide to output. Please crop it or reduce resolution and try again. (Page 1)"

Tried cropping it as much as I could but no go. Interestingly the file that DID export is 1,340 KB while the one that won't is only 426 KB (430 after crop).

Understood. The cropping issue is curious... :confused:


I take it that even though the pdfs themselves imported with transparent backgrounds there is still no way to alter the color of them?

I know of no way to colorize an OLE object, which is the resulting entity when adding a PDF to AutoCAD.

[rsloyer]

I've seen programs to convert pdf to dwg, and I think I might be better off using one of those.